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　　The curtain came down on the 2008 Olympic Games yesterday but not before the day had thrown up some pleasant surprises．

　　A country that has produced some great long-distance runners had to wait for Beijing to win its first marathon gold．Samuel Wanjiru did that honor for Kenya, and in Olympic record time, too．

　　China was expected to top the gold medal list, taking 51 to end up with total medals equal to the wonderful round figure of 100．China's gold effort is the biggest after the former Soviet Union's 55 gold medals in Seoul 1988．

　　Though the US was the second on the gold list, the first time it slipped from the top since 1992, it beat its own record of total number of medals winning 110 medals．

　　The 17-day Beijing Games saw 43 world records and more than 120 Olympic records broken．

　　The International Olympic Committee(IOC)was pleased with the Games and the hosts, with IOC President Jacques Rogge saying at the closing ceremony：“Thank you to the people of China, to all the wonderful volunteers and to BOCOG(Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games)．

　　He said the world would remember the 17 glorious days of the Games forever．

　　China's central leadership congratulated the country's athletes for their “achievements”．The Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council sent a joint(共同的)congratulatory message to them．

　　The celebration is not China's alone．Every country that took part in the Games had reasons to be excited, for many a country won its first Olympic medal in Beijing．Britain's athletes gave the country a lot to cheer about before hosting the 2012 Games．Britain's gold effort and its overall position on the medal's list were the best in a century．

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　　Some time ago, I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg．I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there were a whole lot of antique(古董)shops near my home．So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me．I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception(接待)．I was quite wrong．The man wouldn't even look at my chair．

　　The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third, and the fourth－so I decided that my approach must be wrong．

　　I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind．I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said, “Yes , not a bad chair．How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds ,” I said．“OK,” he said, “I'll give you twenty pounds．” “It's got a slightly broken leg, ”I said．“Yes I saw that, it's nothing．”

　　Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited．“What will you do with it?” I asked．“Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done．” “I'll buy it,” I said．“What do you mean?Y ou've just sold it to me,” he said．“Yes, I know but I've changed my mind．I'm sorry, I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it．” “You must be crazy,” he said．Then suddenly the penny dropped．“ I know what you want．You want me to repair your chair．” “ You're right,” I said．“And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, ‘ Would you mend this chair for me'?” “I wouldn't have agreed to do it ,” he said．“We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble．But I'll mend this for you, shall we say for a five?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused(感到有趣)by the whole thing．

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　　As high school students flock to social networking sites, campus police are scanning their Facebook and mySpace pages for tips to help break up fights, monitor gangs and prevent crime．

　　Some students object to police looking over their shoulders．But officers responsible for school safety say routine checks of the online forums often add to the knowledge they obtain from hallways or schoolyards．

　　In recent years, school administrators have blamed some campus fights on Internet conflicts and urged parents to keep watch on their children’s computer activity．But students who use the Web to let their 500 closest friends know what they are doing at all times are sometimes surprised that police are watching, too．

　　Police don’t have special privileges on Facebook or MySpace．Students who want to go unobserved can change privacy settings so that their profiles are displayed only to a list of approved people．But the default(默认)settings leave those profiles open to many Internet users(in the case of Facebook)or all of them(in the case of MySpace)．

　　Employers and college admission counselors have examined online profiles of student applicants for some time．Police across the country have been doing the same for the past two or three years, said kevin Quinn, a spokesman for the Minnestota-based National Association of School Resource Officers．

　　“If you are already familiar with the technology, it doesn’t take you but a couple of minutes to hook into the student population and keep an eye on things,” Quinn said．

　　An expedition into a thicket(丛林)of MySpace profiles found high school students discussing drugs, sex and fights．It was all publicly available(although in language that caused a reporter to blush)．

　　Late last month, Fairfax County police announced the arrests of seven Chantilly area teenagers for trying to recruit Franklin Middle School students to a gang．That investigation was aided when a student showed the school resource officer gang symbols littering one of the suspect’s MySpace profiles．

　　Fairfax police say they pride themselves on addressing issues in schools before they develop into major problems．Keeping an eye on Facebook and MySpace has become an extra tool in that effort, they said．

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　　When it comes to using technology to foster education, the prevailing wisdom has been that more is better．Over the past decade, universities around the globe have invested heavily in the wired classroom, adding everything from external laptop connections to Blu-ray DVD players．But there is little evidence that these devices enhance learning－and, critics believe, they might actually hinder it, making both students and teachers passive．What if classrooms were restored to the pre-Internet days of wooden tables and chalk?

　　Take technology out of the classroom．Jose Nowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Texas, has done just that．He wants his faculty to “teach naked”, meaning without the aid of any machines．“Just because you have a PowerPoint presentation doesn’t mean you have a good lecture,” he argues．Classroom time should be reserved for discussions with the prefessor, aimed at teaching students to think critically, argue, and raise new questions．Due to the grim economic climate at most universities, he says, avoiding new technology is also a sound way to save money．

　　Bowen, who teaches music, delivers content via podcasts(播客), which students must listen to on their own time．He then quizzes them on the material before every class to make sure they’ve done the work, and uses class time for discussions and research according to the recorded lessons．He’s been teaching the same material for 25 years, but since he implemented the new way, he says, his students have been more engaged and scored better on exams．College students asked by researchers to list what motivates them have consistently emphasized teacher enthusiasm, organization, and raport(融洽的关系), while naming lack of active participation as a major disincentive(遏制因素)．Last spring the British Educational Research Journal published a survey that found that 59 percent of students called at least half their lectures boring－particularly those involving PowerPoint．

　　Technology has a place in education, but it should be used independently by students outside the classroom．That gives them more time to absorb lectures via podcast or video, and frees teachers to spend class time coaching students in how to apply the material rather than simply absorb it．

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　　Judging from recent surveys, most experts in sleep behavior agree that there is virtually an epidemic(流行病)of sleepiness in the nation．“I can’t think of a single study that hasn’t found Americans getting less sleep than they ought to,” says Dr．David．Even people who think they are sleeping enough would probably be better off with more rest．

　　The beginning of our sleep-deficit(lack)crises can be traced back to the invention of the light bulb a century ago．From diary entries and our personal accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, sleep scientists have reached the conclusion that the average person used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night．“The best sleep habits once were forced on us, when we had nothing to do in the evening down on the farm, and it was dark．” By the 1950s and 1960s, the sleep schedule had been reduced dramatically, to between 7.5 and 8 hours, and most people had to wake to an alarm clock．“People cheat in their sleep, and they don’t even realize they’re doing it,” says Dr．David．“They think they’re okay because they can get by on 6.5 hours, when they really need 7.5, 8 or even more to feel ideally energetic．”

　　Perhaps the most merciless robber of sleep, researches say, is the complexity of the day．Whenever pressures from work, family, friends and community increase, many people consider sleep the least expensive item on their program．“In our society, you’re considered dynamic if you say you need only 5.5 hours’ sleep．If you’ve got to get 8.5 hours, people think you lack drive and ambition．”

　　To determine the consequences of sleep-deficit, researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests requiring them, for instance, to add columns of numbers or recall a passage read to them only minutes earlier．“We’ve found that if you’re in sleep deficit, performance suffers,” says Dr．David．“Short-term memory is weakened, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate．”

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　　When Matthew Jones decided to donate a kidney(肾)to a stranger, the Michigan father of five had no idea he'd be starting a life-saving, "pay-it-forward" chain．

　　His kidney donation to a Phoenix woman in 2007 set off a long-running organ donation that resulted in 10 sick people getting new kidneys over a year．It hasn't ended yet．

　　Jones, who lives in Petoskey, Michigan, heard a news report about a man giving a kidney to a stranger and thought he'd like to do that, too．He worked with a transplant center in Buffalo, NY, but no match worked out．

　　He ultimately(最后)was referred to Dr Michael Rees, a transplant surgeon at University of Toledo Nedical Center, who was trying to design an advanced living-donor pairing system．

　　It paired the 30-year-old Jones with Barb Bunnell, a 53-year-old Arizona woman whose husband wanted to donate a kidney to her but was incompatible．

　　Just after the July 18, 2007 surgery, Jones recalls feeling "like a truck had run over me"．But he was well enough to go to a Diamondbacks baseball game five days later．

　　Bunnell's grateful husband, Ron, then became what Rees believes is the world's first "bridge" donor, meaning he donated his kidney later．

　　Ron Bunnell was on a plane a week later to give his kidney to a 32-year-old Toledo woman, Angie Heckman．She's a waitress at a bar owned by her mother, Laurie Sarvo．Sarvo then gave a kidney to a woman in Columbus, Ohio, whose daughter then became the fourth donor in the chain．

　　On it ran through patient-donor pairs including two more married couples, a daughter and father, and two friends．The last operation was done last March, with a 60-year-old woman in Toledo getting a kidney from a Baltimore donor．That recipient's daughter wants to donate a kidney, but a match hasn't worked out yet．

　　"There's a very good possibility that when I'm dead and gone, this chain will still be going on," Jone said．

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　　There is an English saying that goes, "he who laughs last, laughs the hardest．" High School Musical star and teen heartthrob(让人心动的男人)Zac Efron is laughing a lot these days．

　　As a young boy, Efron was picked on in school because he was always the smallest in his class and teased because he had a big space between his teeth．In sixth grade, Efron's basketball team made it to the league championships．In double overtime(两个加时赛), with three seconds left,he rebounded the ball and passed it to the wrong team! They scored and his team lost the game．

　　But history, as they say, is a thing of the past．Now at 21, Efron is one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People, graces the cover of Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood's most influential magazine, and is traveling the world promoting the third High School Musical film．Director Adam Shankman described Efron as "arguably the biggest teen star in America right now．" Simply google "Zac Efron" and you get more than 14 million responses．Yes, it seems Efron has a lot to smile about these days．

　　Efron was born and raised in California．He took school seriously．According to Efron, "he would flip out if he got a B and not an A in school, and that he was a class clown．" It was his father who encouraged him to act．He took part in school performances and with a local theater group．He also took singing lessons．He graduated from high school in 2006 and was accepted at the University of Southern California to study film．But he deferred--why study movies when you can star in them．

　　Now he has signed on to star in the romantic comedy Seventeen Again and to play in the remake of the hugely popular movie, Footloose．Efron is also earning more than ＄3 million for his role in High School Musical 3．Not bad for a 21-year-old．But Efron still remembers those bullies．

　　"You always have to remember that bullies want to bring you down because you have something that they admire," Efron said．"Also, when you get made fun of, when people point out your weaknesses, it's an opportunity for you to rise above．"

　　Efron has risen all the way to the top of the movie business．And he can now laugh all the way to the bank．

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　　Our boat floated on between walls of forest．It was too thick to allow us a view of the land we were passing through, though we knew from the map that our river must from time to time be passing through chains of hills which crossed the jungle plains．Nowhere did we find a place where we could have landed：where the jungle did not actually spread right down into the river, banks of soft mud prevented us form going ashore．In any case, what would we have gained by landing? The country was full of snakes and other dangerous creatures and the jungle was so thick that one would be able to advance slowly, cutting one’s way with knives the whole way．So we stayed in the boat, hoping that when we reached the sea, a friendly fisherman would pick us up and take us to civilization．

　　As for water, there was a choice．We could drink the muddy river water, or die of thirst．We drank the water．Men who have just escaped from what appeared to be certain death lost all worries about such small things as diseases caused by dirty water．In fact, none of us suffered from any illness as a result．

　　One day we passed another village, but fortunately nobody saw us．We did not wish to risk being taken prisoners a second time：we might not be so lucky as to escape in a stolen boat again．

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　　Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side．

　　Most people know this joke．But recently, some people have been much more worried about how the grizzly bear and mountain lion can cross the road．

　　“Millions of animals die each year on U．S．roads,” the Federal Highway Administration reports．In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U．S．today．The main reason? Road kill．

　　“Eco-passages” may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars．They are paths both over and under roads．“These eco-passages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid road accidents,” said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Protection Society．

　　But do animals actually use the eco-passages? The answer is yes．Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an eco-passage that went under a highway．This showed that the lions used the passage．

　　Builders of eco-passages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them．Animals seem to be catching on．Animals as different as salamanders(火蜥蜴)and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses．

　　The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around．You might see an animals overpass!